[Future National Public Health Agency: an opportunity for the public health system in Spain]

Abstract

The creation of a national centre for public health, with adequate resources, will make it possible to face the public health challenges of the present and the future in our country. To this end, the proposed state agency, should hold functions based on advanced public health organizational schemes, while linking with the sustainable development goals. The coordination of a national public health strategy built on a collaborative network of networks would also be essential, as developing an innovative, benchmarked and prioritised public health communication strategy, among other tasks. The lack of resources, the current relative disconnection of essential public health functions at the state level, and the inequity in their development of these functions at the regional and municipal levels, favour the development of the agency project as a network of networks. In this paper we give ideas for a process that seems decisive for Spanish public health in the 21st century.

Keywords: Administración en salud pública; Essential public health functions; Funciones esenciales de salud pública; Health planning; Objetivos de desarrollo sostenible; Planificación en salud; Práctica de salud pública; Public health; Public health administration; Public health practice; Salud pública; Sustainable development goal.